Data storage cartridges have been used for decades in the computer, audio, and video fields as means for storing data files. Data storage cartridges utilizing magnetic storage tapes continue to be a popular form of recording large volumes of information for subsequent retrieval and use, particularly in an automated library setting. Although conventional, automated libraries using data storage tape cartridges provide access to vast amounts of information, data storage tape cartridges prevent true random access to files stored in the data storage tape cartridges. In particular, a conventional data storage tape cartridge consists of a magnetic storage tape (i.e., an elongated flexible medium having a magnetic recording layer) wound on one or more wheels or hubs.
Data is recorded and retrieved from the magnetic storage tape by inserting the data storage tape cartridge within the tape drive and passing the storage tape in front of one or more read/write heads. The tape drives are usually streaming devices in which data is recorded in a serpentine fashion as the storage tape streams back and forth across the read/write heads. In particular, the tape drive typically writes the data along a number of tracks that span the length of the storage tape. For this reason, data storage tape cartridges can be viewed as sequentially storing data in a linear format. The linear data storage format does not provide true random access to individual files. In particular, a tape drive must scan through the entire length of the storage tape until the appropriate file mark is identified on the storage tape, which increases the file retrieval time.
Due to the lack of true random access to individual files stored within the data storage tape cartridges and the affinity for pre-existing automated, data storage tape cartridge library systems, data storage cartridges utilizing non-tape forms of data recording media have developed as a data storage alternative. In particular, data storage tape cartridges using hard disk drive data storage have increased in availability and popularity. While data storage cartridges using hard disk drives provide for true random access to data stored therein, the typical electrical connectors of hard disk drives are not configured to withstand the plurality of connection and disconnection cycles typical for data storage cartridges used in automated data storage libraries.
For example, hard disk drives typically include a Serial Advanced Technology Attachment (SATA) connector having a plurality of connection terminals. A device, such as a read/write dock, is typically mated with the hard disk drive by frictionally sliding dock connection pins over a surface of each of the plurality of connection terminals. Repeated siding of the connection pins over the connection terminals continually scrapes away and degrades the conductive plating on the connection terminal, thereby, gradually disintegrating the integrity of the resultant electrical connection. Furthermore, typical SATA connectors generally require precise alignment with connection pins of a docking device, which further complicates the design of data storage cartridges and docking devices used in automated systems.
For at least the above reasons, it would be desirable to form a more robust electrical connection between a non-tape data storage cartridge and an associated read and/or write cartridge dock or other host system that is capable of maintaining electrical integrity through a plurality of connection and disconnection cycles.